Matt Olson homers, scores winning run on wild pitch in 11th as Braves top Pirates 3-2
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Matt Olson homered in the third inning and scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the 11th inning as the Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 on Saturday.
Chase Shugart (1-3) got Sean Murphy to ground to short for the second out in the 11th with Olson on third. He intentionally walked Michael Harris II to bring up Eli White. Shugart nearly hit White in the head with a pitch that went to the backstop, allowing Olson to score.
Pittsburgh’s Ke’Bryan Hayes started the 10th by moving automatic runner Henry Davis to third on a sacrifice bunt. Davis was thrown out at home after Matt Gorski grounded to third. Scott Blewett (2-0) then got Alexander Canario to fly out.
Joey Bart hit his fourth single of the game with one out in the eighth for the Pirates. Ji Hwan Bae entered as the pinch runner, stole second, advanced on a groundout and scored to tie it 2-all when Gorski sent a dribbler down the line to third.
Don Kelly, in his second game as Pirates manager since Derek Shelton was fired on Thursday, was tossed in the sixth inning after plate umpire Clint Vondrak called two balls to start Olson’s at bat.
Murphy and Harris hit back-to-back doubles in the second inning to put Atlanta ahead before Olson hit a sinker from Andrew Heaney 431 feet for a 2-0 lead.
Key moment
Canario went to third on Jared Triolo’s bunt to start the 11th for Pittsburgh. Blewett went on to strike out Liover Peguero and force Tommy Pham to ground to second.
Key stat
The Pirates scored fewer than five runs in a 16th straight game. Their longest streak since at least 1901 is 17 games from Aug. 12-29, 1908.
Up next
Braves LHP Chris Sale (1-3, 4.07 ERA) will take the mound in the series finale Sunday against Pittsburgh RHP Carmen Mlodzinski (1-3, 6.16).
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
By WES CROSBY
Associated Press
